I would be interested to know how much extra grime, dust and dirt the average Londoner is breathing in due to the countless building sites that are manifest throughout the city. Add to this the work to replace water mains, roadworks and, in my neighbourhood, a number of roof replacements and front gardens being concreted over and you have a whole ton of extra pollution.
A lot of it is new housing: The government is very keen on extra houses, what they like to, laughingly, refer to as “affordable housing”. We do not need extra houses but what we need is such a political hot potato that they are reticent to declare it.
Or, perhaps, they really are too naive to realise it.
What we need is less people.
It is not a racist declaration, not a statement of hatred or intolerance and not prejudice towards any section of the community, indeed it could be argued that putting a premium on the price of housing because of the demand is prejudiced towards a considerable percentage of the population, those on average or below average salary who can not afford to step onto the property ladder.
It is simply logistics and common sense.
London can sprawl a little but there are limitations, one hopes. The U.K. is an island. The area of land, in both cases, is finite. Finite has one important property, it has limitations.
Take an easy example of a limited space: A lift (elevator).
A number of people can ride in it comfortably, a few more people and it still functions but is a little less pleasant. Crowded and squeezed in and it starts to become unpleasant. If you continue to pack enough in that the cables break, everyone gets hurt.
There is already a concern that there is not enough water to service London and the population is forecast to rise. Think of rush hour tubes, think of them with yet more people.
It is shortsighted and dangerous to just throw houses up on every spare plot of land. Let us say that, on average, each new house has one car, that needs a parking place, it needs a road infrastructure that can cope with it. Say every other new house has a child or two, they need a school and teachers to teach them and someone driving them on the school run..and the whole family, all the increasing population need doctors, nurses, hospitals, GP surgeries with room on their books, sewage systems, water, supermarkets……
Every time you hear that announcement that a train is cancelled, every time you hear the sound of houses being built and every time you see a grinning politician telling you increase is the right way to go…I suggest what you are hearing are the cables snapping.
